The FCC should use regulation to help revive the level of competition that existed when niche ISPs flourished in the 1990s, Small Business Administration economist Radwan Saade said at the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors conference Tuesday. Saade, who works in the SBA’s Office of Advocacy, is finishing a Congressionally mandated study of small business’ broadband needs. It’s due in mid-October.

The FCC wouldn’t be able to reclassify broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, under draft net neutrality legislation circulating in the House. The proposed law, which if enacted would sunset at the end of 2012, would allow the FCC only to adjudicate violations case by case, and would treat wireless and wireline networks differently. Discussions were ongoing Monday afternoon, with the details “still in a great amount of flux,” said a House staffer.

Some civil liberties groups see problems with Obama administration plans to submit a bill next year to make the Internet subject to wiretap orders, as reported by The New York Times. The bill would affect peer-to-peer communications like Facebook and VoIP services including Skype. Federal officials said the bill is needed because “their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is going dark as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone,” according to the Times.

The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) got a $154 million grant from NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program to build a first-responder network using 700 MHz spectrum. The group was one of 21 that received waivers from the FCC in May to build early networks, ahead of a proposed national network, using the spectrum.

Career FCC staff recommended the agency let cable operators use HD set-top boxes lacking CableCARDs and with basic, non-interactive functionality so subscribers with older TVs can get HD service without leasing a more costly box, agency and industry officials said. That’s in a draft version of an order meant to make improvements to CableCARDs before the regulator issues rules for all pay-TV providers to let subscribers connect any video device to their systems. They would use a cheap gateway device that would let customers more easily switch providers.

Complaints that the satellite industry lacks effective competition are an inappropriate attempt to inject a private dispute into an FCC proceeding, Intelsat said in reply comments for the International Bureau’s annual Satellite Competition Report. The dispute over a Defense Department contract that an Intelsat subsidiary won “illustrates the highly competitive environment in which satellite network services are provided to end users and how the removal of historic restraints on Intelsat’s ability to serve end users directly has benefited consumers” with lower prices and higher efficiency, it said. CapRock and Spacenet, which have expressed qualms about competition in the proceeding (CD Aug 27 p7) and another one (CD April 12 p6), are mischaracterizing “conditions in the highly competitive satellite industry,” said Intelsat. Microcom has also alleged problems in the market.

The FCC should concentrate on public awareness of cybersecurity instead of adopting a massive security road map that would conflict with other federal agencies’ work and ultimately weaken protections, telecommunications players said in comments filed Wednesday and Thursday with the commission. The comments responded to an Aug. 9 notice about how the FCC should deal with cybersecurity in line with a National Broadband Plan recommendation.

A rulemaking paving the way for the FCC to auction TV stations’ spectrum for wireless broadband use and give part of the proceeds to the affected broadcasters won’t be approved until after the deadline envisioned by the commission in its agenda to deliver on the National Broadband Plan. The plan called for action this quarter on an item on “broadcast TV spectrum innovation” that would seek comment on proposals to increase spectrum efficiency and innovation (http://xrl.us/bhf9kj). Instead, Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to circulate in Q4 a rulemaking notice that could be voted on at the November or December FCC meetings, agency officials and industry executives said. The FCC has missed several other deadlines in the agenda (CD Sept 1 p1).

Ivi TV, selling a $5 monthly subscription for online access to a handful of TV stations, sought a declaratory ruling against TV program suppliers in federal court because other options weren’t available to it, said its counsel. “Our investigation demonstrated to us that this wasn’t the FCC’s province at all,” said Lawrence Graham of Black Lowe & Graham. He pointed to a recent Media Bureau decision in the Sky Angel program access complaint (CD April 23 p9) and other public statements that the agency doesn’t regulate Internet content. “A number of things told us the FCC doesn’t have anything to do with video content over the Internet,” Graham said.

A handful of companies have turned down loan awards from the Broadband Initiatives Program, and officials in the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service are in negotiations to get the companies to stay with the program, a RUS spokesman said. “Fewer than 10” of about 300 grant winners have turned down awards, he said.